


Three Hundred and Sixty Five Days

by lasvegas_lights



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Episode 10x22, Episode Fix-it, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Post-Season/Series Finale, Season/Series 10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:47:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23531809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lasvegas_lights/pseuds/lasvegas_lights
Summary: My post-finale fix-itSteve has been gone for 365 days.
Relationships: Steve McGarrett/Danny "Danno" Williams
Comments: 19
Kudos: 254





	Three Hundred and Sixty Five Days

**Author's Note:**

> There's no mention of Catherine in this because I like to pretend that last scene didn't happen.  
> Enjoy!!

Danny’s eyes snapped open, his whole body instantly on high alert. The clatter that had woken him up continued and it hadn’t taken long for Eddie to begin whining downstairs. He glanced over to the nightstand where the green glow of the alarm clock told him it was past two in the morning. Whilst others in the team had keys, including Junior who technically still lived there, no-one would be turning up at that time of night.   
  
Quietly, he slid out from the under the covers, his bare feet landing gently on the cold wooden floors and he reached over to the chest of drawers where he’d left his badge and gun. He tasted the bitter taste of adrenaline on his tongue, all too familiar to him as his heart thudded in his chest and every fibre in his body readied itself for a fight.   
  
Moving quickly, he tip-toed out of the room, gun pointed in front of him as he headed to the stairs. With just a crack of moonlight through the living room curtains, he could just about make out the figure crouched down in front of Eddie. Whoever was in the house wasn’t expecting company and it gave Danny the element of surprise as he slowly descended the stairs. He’d lived there long enough now to know how to avoid the steps which creaked.   
  
As soon as both feet were off the last step, he slipped the safety off his gun and aimed it carefully at the man’s back.   
  
“Turn around!” He barked. “Do it now!”  
  
The figure froze. The intruder slowly rose up to full height and then just as slowly, turned around to face Danny.   
  
It was Danny’s turn to freeze. He stood stock-still as his brain processed who was standing in front of him. The gun was lowered to his side as he looked back in shock. “Steve?”  
  
“Hey Danno.”  
  
Danny frowned, “ _Hey Danno_?” He parroted incredulously, “That’s all you have to say?”  
  
Steve shrugged.   
  
Danny let out a sigh. Stepping over to the side table nearby, he laid his gun down and switched on the lamp within reach. He winced as his eyes adjusted to the bright light and he turned around to find Steve doing the same. The high from the adrenaline had left his body quickly and in its place was just trembling limbs and the beginnings of a headache.   
  
Standing across the room from each other, neither said anything straight away. Eddie, happy to be reunited with Steve sniffed at his shoes and wagged his tail.   
  
Finally, Danny cleared his throat, “So, you’re back.”  
  
“Looks like.”  
  
“For good?”  
  
Steve shrugged again, “I guess.”   
  
Danny nodded.   
  
“You made yourself at home then?” Steve spoke up, motioning with his head up to the bedroom Danny had come out of. The bedroom that had been Steve’s a year ago.   
  
“You weren’t using it,” Danny argued, “Couldn’t exactly force Eddie out of his home now could I?”   
  
Steve looked back at Danny in amusement. Reaching down he gave Eddie a soft pat on his heat. Eddie twisted his head under the large hand and licked a long stripe across Steve’s palm, “Guess not.”  
  
With another sigh, Danny realised he wouldn’t be going back to sleep any time soon. “Tea?” He suggested and Steve nodded. Danny headed to the kitchen, Steve not far behind. He flicked on the light, the cooler bulbs lighting everything in stark white light, a shock from the warm glow of the lamp in the other room.   
  
He quickly got to work filling the kettle with cold water and placing it on the stove to heat up. With Steve’s eyes following him around the small room, he retrieved two mugs and two teabags. He wasn’t a big tea drinker himself but Grace liked a hot camomile with lemon before bed. She’d only been back to Oahu once since going off to college but he’d gotten so used to stocking up before she left that he hadn’t been able to stop himself from buying them since. There was always a box in the cupboard, just in case.   
  
Without looking, Danny knew Steve was leaning against the counter, his arms folded across his chest. He didn’t need to see Steve to know he already looked at home in the kitchen he hadn’t been in for three hundred and sixty-five days.   
  
It was only when the hot water had been poured into the mugs that he turned around. Holding his own mug in one hand, he placed the other mug onto the table in the middle of the room and pushed it over towards Steve.   
  
As Steve reached for the mug, Danny finally took in the sight of his best friend. The combination of something so familiar and something unrecognisable left him discombobulated. The Steve that he knew was there, standing in front of him, strong and big and confident as always, but whilst he still looked in shape there was a softness to his body that agreed with him in all the right ways.   
  
For years his broad shoulders had been tense from carrying the weight of the world on them and now they were now relaxed and loose. The worn tattoos peeked out from under his short sleeves like they always did but there was a new tattoo in fresher ink across his forearm that Danny made a mental note to ask about. Steve had been attractive before, Danny couldn’t deny that, but now where was something so captivating about him that he couldn’t look away.   
  
His eyes shone in the harsh fluorescent light, revealing a spark that had been dimmer when he had left. The warmth in his gaze had never changed but the calmness in his expression was new and the easy smile on his face was sincere. Danny could tell, whatever Steve had gone out to find on his travels he’d found.   
  
“You kept them all.”  
  
Danny blinked out of his thoughts. “Hmm?” The mug in his hand was still too hot and he placed it down on the counter beside him.   
  
“My postcards, you kept them all.”  
  
He followed Steve’s gaze to the fridge door where Steve’s only correspondence for the last eight months were displayed, each one held up with a different magnet. San Francisco, London, Iceland, Cape Town, Australia, Hong Kong, Danny had lost track of where exactly Steve had visited, but they were all displayed like some kind of shrine.  
  
“Charlie likes them,” Danny explained.   
  
“Not you?” Steve pushed.   
  
“I would have liked a phone call better,” he grumbled. “At least when one of those arrived I knew you were alive out there somewhere.”  
  
Steve sighed and his gaze fell to the linoleum squares at their feet, “I’m sorry."  
  
“Are you?” Danny found himself asking before he could stop himself.   
  
Steve’s eyes snapped back up to meet his. “Danny-”  
  
“I’m just wondering to myself what you’re even doing here Steve, I mean, you stopped calling after a few short months, didn’t exactly take you long to move on. C’mon Steve, a measly postcard every few weeks? Is that all we were worth?” _All I was worth_ he added silently.   
  
“I didn’t-   
  
Danny said nothing as he looked back at Steve expectantly. He’d waited a year, he could wait a little bit longer for Steve’s explanation.   
  
“It was too hard Danny. Every time I called, all I wanted to do was get back on a plane and come home,” Steve admitted softly. “I couldn’t, not then, I still had something I needed to do.”  
  
Danny nodded, “I thought-’  
  
Steve’s head tilted to the side, “You thought what?”  
  
“That it was a sign,” Danny shifted uncomfortably under Steve’s eyes, “Eventually the postcards would stop and I would be here, living in the house of a man that didn’t ever plan on coming home.”  
  
Steve crossed the room and stood beside Danny. He leant against the edge of the sink and looked out of the window at the bright full moon in the sky, “I’m here now.”   
  
“For good? Or just for now?”   
  
“I have to choose?”  
  
Danny nodded, “Yes.” Steve’s head twisted sharply to the right to look at him. “Tell me now. Am I waiting for something that will never happen? I need to know Steve.”   
  
It was sad really, the sympathetic looks the team would send his way when Steve’s name was mentioned. Each of one them at one time or another had gently suggested it wasn’t such a great idea for him living in Steve’s house. He knew they meant well but moving out of Steve’s house was like giving up the last connection he had to his friend. No matter how hard it felt at times, there was a part of him, a stubborn part of him, that had refused to give up hope that Steve would return.   
  
Whilst Steve had gone off to find something, Danny had mourned what he’d lost. The other half of him. It just hadn’t been the same at 5-0 since Steve had left. The team, thanks to the addition of Cole in Steve’s absence, were still just as effective but every day was a reminder that Steve wasn’t there. Every time he looked up through the glass partition and expected to see Steve grinning back at him from his office, every time he stood at the computer table slightly to the left because Steve was supposed to be standing in the middle. Every quiet car journey.   
  
“I can’t promise you I’ll never want to go away again,” Steve admitted. Danny’s eyes slid shut. “But I can promise you that when, _if_ that happens I’ll ask you to come with me.”  
  
“What?” Danny’s eyes snapped back open in surprise. With a tug on his wrist, Steve pulled Danny around until they were facing each other, just a few inches of space between them.  
  
“I’m not sure when...Could be five years, could be ten...Charlie’ll be off at college, Grace’ll be off changing the world somewhere...and it’ll just be me and you.” Every one of Danny’s nerve endings felt like it was on fire as Steve’s hand trailed up his bare arm. “We’ll be sitting out on those chairs down by the water and you’ll tell me it’s time and I’ll say Danny, let’s go somewhere, together.”  
  
“And then what?” Danny asked, his voice no more than a whisper.   
  
“We’ll say goodbye to the team, pick a destination at random and get on a plane,” Steve’s hand had reached Danny’s neck and the gentle touch sent shivers down his spine. The rough pads of Steve’s fingers traced his jawline before they slid around the back to press into the short hairs at the back of Danny’s neck. “Of course we’ll end up visiting Jersey because you’ll have spent the last few years wearing me down,” Danny couldn’t help but laugh softly at Steve’s words. “And we’ll cross over to San Francisco and talk about old times with Chin and Abby...After they kick us out for drinking all their booze, we’ll get back on a plane and I’ll take you to all the places I visited because I wanted you to truly understand what it was that I went through to be whole again, to be able to come back here and be what we both needed me to be.”  
  
Steve’s warm palm cupped Danny’s cheek, his thumb wiped away the moisture that had formed in his eyes as Steve had talked. Danny couldn’t wait.   
  
“You should know,” Steve looked down at Danny. Danny’s shining eyes looked back up, “For months now, there’s been one thing on my mind, one thing I’ve been wanting to do as soon as I was home again.”  
  
“And what’s that?” Danny asked, though, with their proximity and the dark look in Steve’s eyes, the detective in him could guess what his answer was.   
  
“It’s obvious isn’t it?” Steve leant in, his forehead pressing gently against Danny’s. They breathed each other in for a long moment before Steve answered. “Drive your new car.”  
  
Danny’s head snapped back, hard enough to dislodge Steve’s hand from his face. He glared at Steve and Steve smirked back. “What the hell is the matter with you?”  
  
Steve laughed. “Oh, Danno.”   
  
Before Danny could say another word, Steve reached out, took Danny’s head with both hands and pulled him in until their lips were pressed together.   
  
Danny sank into the kiss, their first in eleven years of knowing each other. He’d imagined it a few times over the years but the fantasy was nothing compared to the reality. Steve’s lips were soft and pressed against Danny’s with just the right amount of pressure. Whilst Steve’s hands framed his face, Danny’s went to Steve’s waist, his palms pressing into the warmth he could feel through Steve’s shirt.   
  
He let Steve manoeuvre them both around until Danny’s ass was backed up against the counter, allowing him to press up against Danny even tighter. The kiss deepened and Danny couldn’t help the moan that left his mouth as Steve did something particularly memorable with his tongue. Steve smiled against his lips and Danny retaliated by pressing his thigh up between Steve’s legs. Steve’s smile turned in a curse and it was Danny’s turn to smile.   
  
When they finally separated, the pair hung onto each other closely, both red-faced and breathing heavily. The weight of Steve’s body against Danny’s left nothing to the imagination and he knew the sweatpants he’d been sleeping in weren’t hiding his own interest. If the beginning tendrils of pleasure shooting through his body were anything to go by, the rest they had to look forward to would be explosive.  
  
“We have a lot of catching up to do y’know,” Danny reminded Steve as he ran his soothingly up and down Steve’s spine.   
  
“You want to hear about my trip?”  
  
Danny shook his head, “Not the catching up I was referring to.”   
  
“I mean I have a lot of photos, I could set up a slideshow,” Steve teased.   
  
Danny pushed Steve away and towards the door. “Get upstairs already.”  
  
Steve laughed. He reached a hand out for Danny and pulled him along. “Our tea’s going to get cold.”   
  
“I’m regretting this already,” Danny rolled his eyes.   
  
“Liar,” Steve replied with a squeeze of Danny’s hand. Because of course, Steve knew him too well. They bickered through the house, falling into familiar patterns like the last year hadn’t happened. Except every time Danny looked at Steve he was reminded that it had happened.   
  
“Hey,” Danny stopped them at the entrance to the bedroom with a tug on Steve’s hand. Steve looked down at their joined hands and backup at Danny with a questioning look. “I’m glad you found what you were looking for out there...the peace you wanted? It uh, it suits you.”  
  
Steve smiled back at Danny before his expression turned serious, “I’m sorry I had to go away to find it.”   
  
Danny couldn’t help himself from leaning in and pressing a quick reassuring kiss against Steve’s lips. He understood. He might not have when Steve first left, but he did now. “Welcome home.”   
  
“Yeah, _home,_ ” Steve agreed, his eyes never leaving Danny.   
  
With smiles across their faces, they crossed the threshold into the bedroom and closed the door. Before any clothes could be removed, Danny heard a noise from the other side of the door and sighed heavily. Letting go of Steve, he walked back over and swung the door open. Looking down he met Eddie’s large sad eyes.   
  
“Fine, you can come in but if you start staring I'm kicking you out onto the lanai.”   
  
With a happy huff, Eddie padded into the room and Danny shut the door. 


End file.
